Skibbereen Bank Robbery

The perpetrators robbed the Skibbereen branch of Bank of Ireland at 11:15, then they crashed their getaway car and then they hijacked a car from a woman who was filling her petrol tank at the nearby Costcutter petrol station. Luckily her children had hopped out of the car prior to the hijacking.

West Cork Gardai are now searching for the armed gang which held up staff at the Bank of Ireland on Market street and made off with an undisclosed sum of cash.

The raid started at 11.15 am when two armed and masked men burst into the bank on Market Street and held up staff and made off with a quantity of cash.

The gang made their getaway in a stolen car but it was damaged and stopped after mounting the footpath where they almost killed a female pedestrian.

The two men then fled on foot to the nearby petrol station where they hijacked the second car, ordering a woman from the vehicle at gunpoint and making off towards Ilen Street.

Gardai gave chase but lost the gang but checkpoints have been pointed throughout west cork as gardai try to apprehend the gang.

Supt Pat Maher who is heading up the Garda operation has appealed to the public not to approach the gang who are armed and dangerous and instead asked them to contact gardai immediately.

Locals fear that the gang are hiding out in the area as they initially headed down the Baltimore road which has very few access points to the main road network